Production and post-production workflows have evolved at a breathtaking speed over the last few years. Some of this rapid development came about because the industry needed to pivot during the pandemic, and some were caused by the economic imperatives of smaller budgets and increasingly mobile and ephemeral audiences.
As habits evolve, so must our response to them. There’s never been a time when change was more needed. But happily, there’s also never been a time when such amazingly powerful and appropriate solutions were available.
Speed vs. storytelling
To embrace new opportunities, we first need to dispel the idea that a faster workflow jeopardizes creativity. Capturing, editing, and sharing stories faster, doesn’t have to mean compromise. With the technology now available to deliver great quality content in less time, creators can focus on what they do best—visual storytelling.
Production and post-production technology has reached new heights, driven by improvements in networking, mobile communications, storage, and processing. Each of these improvements boosts every other technology, and the overall effect is multiplicative. Translation: you don’t add the changes together; you multiply them, all of which adds up to extremely rapid progress.
Creativity in the cloud
Not too long ago, camera-to-cloud workflows were essentially seen as science fiction and then—at best—experimental. They certainly weren’t mainstream. There wasn’t enough bandwidth, and it wasn’t widely available.
Today, multi-gigabit broadband is widespread in cities, ultra-efficient codecs like H.265 are freely available, and even in places where there is zero infrastructure, low-latency LEO satellites can be seen from almost anywhere on Earth. Mobile connectivity is no longer rationed to high-population hotspots but now envelopes the planet like an intelligent and adaptive digital blanket. But even with the infrastructure in place, in the experimental days of camera-to-cloud, software applications with consistent hardware weren't available. Every example of camera-to-cloud was a bespoke set-up, each with its own foibles and shortcomings.
Some types of content creation would have been impossible without C2C workflows, either because of time constraints or because of the lack of collaborative working. Today’s state of the art solutions are very different. The technology at the core of C2C is now robust and reliable, and it allows creative professionals to do their jobs better than ever before.
Collaboration across the globe
Collaborative working can improve almost any creative situation by removing delays so that teams can work in parallel. Real-time collaboration enables creative teams to access and work on footage immediately after it's captured, enhancing efficiency and productivity. C2C accelerates the post-production process by eliminating the need for physical media transfer, allowing for quicker feedback and decision-making. As well as providing scalable storage solutions that can easily accommodate large amounts of high-resolution footage, adapting to the needs of various projects.
The cloud is geographically agnostic, so teams can be distributed across the globe with the same degree of access. But even on a local scale, C2C can deliver huge benefits. At the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, where there are dozens of events each day, a production crew is tasked with making a “daily reel” that summarizes the day’s activities. Logistically, this is challenging—with multiple crews out in the field, bringing vast amounts of material to a central production hub for editing and distribution. Without C2C, the crews would have to physically move their footage to the hub at the end of the day, and the editors would sit up all night, sifting through the material before cutting it together in a finished reel.
But with C2C, the process is much slicker. Camera crews send their material to the editors while they are shooting. Editors start work within seconds of the action, with as many working simultaneously on the production as necessary. If there is no need to transfer files manually, then the logistical headaches melt away. Meanwhile, chains of approval and review also become real-time operations. The result is that the daily reels are better and more timely: better because with more time to edit, it’s less stressful, and post-production professionals don’t need to stay up all night; more timely because work starts at the same time as the stories are shot.
A secure and scalable solution
C2C typically uses a “proxy” workflow, where editors use a lightweight, low-bitrate version of the original material. When an edit is finished - and when the original camera copy arrives at the hub - it’s easy to replace the proxies with the full-quality material. But even that is no longer always necessary. Newer codecs like H.265 are incredibly efficient and, given sufficient bandwidth, can be used at delivery quality throughout the entire production chain.
This is transformative, because, with no need for a proxy workflow, as soon as the edit is done, it can be published. This is ideal for almost every kind of production except high-end television or cinema. For news, sports, events and evolving coverage, it means that your footage can be first to arrive on social media or a breaking news channel.
It can be a mindset shift to transition to a new workflow, especially when you have an established way of working. But C2C gives users confidence that their footage is secure, with encrypted cloud storage and controlled access, minimizing the risk of data loss or unauthorized access. C2C is also a connected workflow which means it integrates seamlessly with other cloud-based tools and services, streamlining the entire production and post-production pipeline.
In a cloud-based studio, editors can use the tools they are comfortable with. This helps speed up post-production because there is no steep learning curve to worry about. Familiar tools are built into existing workflows, and that ensures smooth integration and reduces potential disruptions or compatibility issues. The balance between consistency in the workflow and output quality, fosters better collaboration and communication. Everyone is on the same page, and as a result they can maintain productivity levels that our fast paced industry demands.
This now means that fast workflows can also be the best workflows.